Awaken the third eye within us!

Today is Mahashivaratri or the Holy Night, the night of divinity.It is celebrated across India by followers of Lord Shiva. I am watching the live telecast from Isha Yoga Centre, Coimbatore. The founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev was giving a discourse some time back. I would like to share an interesting aspect he touched upon.We all do know of Lord Shiva's story but he highlighted something which we fail to realize in our lives.

He was telling about the greatest Yogi, Shiva in a state of ecstasy. Lord Shiva was dancing completely lost unaware of the world around. He was always like this and this disturbed the other Gods in Heaven. Hence they conspired to get Him married and bind Him to worldly affairs. Sadhguru light-heartedly said marriage is indeed a conspiracy which sometimes is sweet else turns bitter. I hope people realize this!
As planned by the Gods, Kama deva, the God of Love was called upon to shoot a love arrow at Lord Shiva. Kamadeva was fearful of the Lord yet he finally gathered courage to perform his task. Lord Shiva was infuriated and he opened His Third Eye and burnt Kamadeva. We have often heard this story but what we failed to understand is this.

Sadhguru said Kama is not an external thing, it was something within the Lord which He destroyed by awakening His Third Eye. Kama here signifies the evil within us like anger, jealousy, greed etc. The Third Eye is nothing but the awakening within us which destroys the evil in us. Hence we should destroy the evil rising within us by awakening our inner selves  This is possible through self-realization which is the result of true Bhakti (devotion) towards the Lord.

ॐ नमः  शिवाय 

Let's hope to get the blessings of Lord Shiva to rise above this materialistic world and realize our inner self.

Realize the Goddess' Greatness

I had been to Sri Sundarkumar's discourse (during Navaratri) on Ambal Mahimai (Goddess' greatness). He gave a beautiful example: A child always wants his mother to be around without letting the mother to go anywhere. One day, the mother engages the child with toys and goes off to do her regular chores. The child is lost in playing with the toys and forgets that his mother has fooled him into this. When this regularly happens, the child one day realizes and does not want the toy but wants his mother and does not allow himself to be satisfied with the toys and cries for his mother to come. Then the mother is forced to be with him.
In the same way, we are the child in the story and the mother is the Goddess, the toys are the various materialistic pleasures which the Goddess bestows upon us and makes us forget Her. Only when we realize Her Greatness and we come out of this bondage of materialistic pleasures does the Goddess really grant us Moksha. As long as we are lost in the material world, we will never be able to realize the Almighty

या देवी सर्वभुतेषु मातृरूपेण संस्थिता ।
नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः ॥

(To that Devi Who in All Beings is Abiding in the Form of Mother,  
Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations again and again.)

Let's aim to rise above this materialistic world and realize the Greatness of the Goddess and seek Her blessings in this New Year!. Wish you all a very Happy, peaceful and spiritual year ahead!!  

Realizations and Thoughts #6

The present is in our hands, utilize it to the maximum. The past cannot be undone and the future is not in our hands. Nobody knows what is in store for us in the future. So enjoy the present and live life to the fullest without wasting time worrying about the future and losing our today.

The greatness of Paramacharya (Mahaperiyava)

Today I had gone for a discourse on Thiruvempavai. During the discourse, there was a mention of Mahaperiyava (Jagadguru Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal) which I would like to write about.

Saint Thyagaraja, one of the Carnatic Trinity was an ardent devotee of Lord Rama and he composed gems on Lord Rama. He wanted to live in the times of Lord Rama so that he could serve him and see the wonderful Seetha Kalyanam but Mahaperiyava said he did not want to live in the times of Rama. He gave a beautiful justification for this unusual response.He said, " If I were there during Rama's time, I would have been a seer then too. Whenever Lord Rama went out in his chariot and he saw a seer, the Lord would get down and fall at the seer's feet as a mark of respect. He would have done the same had I been there that time. Now, I have an opportunity to fall at Lord Rama's feet and serve him. I would not have had an opportunity to serve him, had I been around then."
Bhakti towards the Divine should be the desire of every individual and Paramacharya personifies this through his explanation.  This is just a glimpse of his greatness and wisdom.
This year his aradhana falls on January 8 (Anusham star). The Hindu had come out with a one page pullout on him. This is one of the articles: A discourse on Dikshitar's kriti.
Hope that with the blessings of the Almighty and Paramacharya I get an opportunity to read and learn a lot more about him and his teachings.

*********** ॐ गुरुभ्यो नमः ***********

The year that was: 2012

This year was a year of realizations and growing up. It was mostly a tough year but it turned me into a new and better person. I started the year with this blog - Anubhuti meaning realizations,experiences and feelings. I had a lot of all three and hence this blog serves its purpose.

This year taught me a lot about life and I am trying to jot it down through my Realizations and Thoughts labelled posts.

There were moments of pain, sorrow, confusion, depression, frustration, anger and little moments of joy.  Little did I know then that it was all a process to refine me into a better and stronger person that I am today. Through these troubled times, God was the only company I had to whom I could speak my heart out. I totally owe it to God, my family and few good friends who made me tide through all this. I wholeheartedly thank all of them.

The last quarter of the year was better than the rest.

From within, I feel I have grown up and am a changed person. The child within me has gone into hiding and its for someone to get it back from exile.

With a happy and composed mind, having no regrets, I sign off 2012 hoping for a better 2013!

Realizations and Thoughts #5

Difficult and tough times are experiences for us to learn from. It is a process of molding you into a better and refined person just as raw gold undergoes refining and molding to be the beautiful piece of jewellery we desire to have.

Realizations and Thoughts #4

Love is just a word till someone comes along and gives it meaning but once that person turns a back on you, it again becomes just a word with a lost meaning!

Realizations and Thoughts #3

True belief in yourself and God are the essential ingredients for sailing through the sea of life!
Belief on anything or anyone else will just leave you shattered at one point of time!

Realizations and Thoughts #2

Take sharanagati (complete surrender) at God's feet, he will show you the way!

I sang......tears rolled

Today evening I was practicing for my next concert. I was singing 'Vilayada Idhu Nerama' when I got choked and tears swelled in my eyes and I just couldn't sing further. I couldn't continue with the Charanam inspite of trying 2-3 times. I just stopped and cried my heart out. This was something very new for me. It has not happened before. Sometimes while singing 'Kurai Ondrum Illai', I get emotional but such an outburst was very new for me.The song completely brought out my current emotional state and the composition's lyrics was  just what I wanted to tell God, word to word. This was exactly what I was wanting to tell God. 

The song is on Lord Muruga in Shanmukhapriya ragam and is composed by T N Bala.

Shanmukhapriya literally means 'that which is the beloved of Shanmukha (Lord Muruga)' and the ragam is believed to evoke bhakti rasa.

Charulata Mani says in her fortnightly column in The Hindu,

"The quintessential feature of classical music is the underlying “bhakthi” bhava that propels the raga bhava and intertwines with the sahitya. When a raga magically evokes the bhakthi rasa, some feel elation, some cry, some feel their hair standing on end, while other less-fortunate ones feel nothing. Musical emotions are like an FM station, we have to tune into that “bhakthi” frequency to receive those transmissions. The raga that has that special power to evoke divinity is Shanmukhapriya." 

Am writing the meaning of the song (whatever I comprehended):

Pallavi:

Vilayada Idhu Nerama - Muruga

Yen Vinayalai padum paadu, thanai cholla varum bodhu

Meaning: Is this is the time to play Lord,

When I have come to tell you my sufferings?

Anupallavi:

Kalaithen Janmam eduth shalaithen porutthu nindru

ulamara unnai naadi, unnai paada varum bodhu - vilayada

Meaning: I am tired of taking births, bored of waiting patiently.

When am coming looking for you and singing for you - you play with me

Charanam:

Puriyadha pudiro nee ariyadha kathayo

parihasamo yen mel, parithabam illayo

viritohai mayil meethu varuvai endru ethir paathu

vizhi mele vizhi vaithu vazhi parthu varum bodhu - vilayada

Meaning: Are you the puzzle that I don’t understand or are you the unknown story,
Are you laughing and making fun of me, don't you have any mercy on me??
I am expecting that you would come riding on the peacock with open feathers,

Am coming looking for you carefully treading the path to reach you - you play with me

Hope God listens to me soon!

Listen to Maharajapuram Santhanam rendering it with great pathos asking God to take mercy on him.

'Aliterate'

We have often heard the words literate and illiterate but I recently came across a word called 'aliterate' in an article titled 'Aliterates, wake up'. Merriam-Webster defines aliteracy as the quality or state of being able to read but uninterested in doing so. So most of us qualify to be aliterates - just reading only how much is required to get by in life.

The article goes on to explain why reading is invaluable for life. It says, 

While reading, we are forced to construct, to produce narrative, to imagine. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language — when you watch a film or listen to a tape — you don't press pause. Hence, the mind receives a far more vigorous workout whilst reading than consuming any other form of media. It is not surprising that avid readers tend to possess better memories and minds more equipped to resist the exigencies of ageing than those who do not read. Their capacity for learning also tends to be far more advanced. In addition, since reading requires more concentration than other media, an avid reader's mind tends to be more focused which allows him or her to make good decisions.

Furthermore, reading is inextricably linked to writing. It is impossible to write well without reading voraciously.Most white-collar jobs require good communication skills, both spoken and written. Corporate executives of every stripe have to write reports, memos, and proposals. So unless there is a new invention that wipes out the need for the written word in all these forms of communication, the only way to do them well is to read well. Reading develops the vocabulary and expands the imagination. It also educates with regard to grammar and sentence structure, and allows the writer to make his or her writing more readable by embellishing it with examples, parables, and metaphors.

This article enlightened me on the known but unrealized facts about reading. Hopefully atleast now I start reading more (and also writing more). :)

Summer is back......

After a break of 3 months, summer is back in Chennai. Its again those sweaty hot days and nights! It's pretty hot inside the house, and today my mind was also heated up. To relax, I went up to the terrace after dinner. It was awesome up there. Cool breeze blowing in now and then giving a new lease of life, the almost full moon smiling at me right from above saying its gonna be alright. The Indian Air Force pilots were up there practicing. It was fun watching the planes passing above beaming their headlights and making a drone noise. Like a kid, I sat on the floor of the terrace in the moonlight and was waving to the planes passing above me :)

 

The Rangoli Competition

The Rangoli competition in my vicinity which was to happen on the New year day finally happened today. Me and my mom participated. We were not great at drawing so we safely chose a pulli kolam (joining the dots kolam) in which you put the dots and then join them to get a design out of it. This is the traditional form of kolam. We knew everybody would be drawing up artistic rangolis so we just went to participate and do our best with no high expectations of winning. It was a first time for me in a rangoli competition so I was pretty excited. We had prepared well armed with colors and the paraphernalia required. Finally, with great satisfaction we completed the kolam. We were happy it turned out well :) You can see it below:

There were around 25 entries.Finally, it was time for the results. There was to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize and 5 consolation prizes and to our surprise we got a consolation prize. Yippeeeee!

I guess we got it for the color combination, the individuality (ours was the only traditional kolam) and the neatness displayed. I was really happy. We got 2 beautiful vases made of glass. Its very pretty and modern! See few of the other rangolis here

The Hindu's reply to TOI

When I saw the Times of India Chennai edition ad on tv for the first time, I was expecting The Hindu to slam a case against TOI as the ad showed the Hindu paper being held by a sleeping man in a scene conveying that it has news which make people sleep. Any regular reader of Hindu will easily identify the paper as the OP-ED page of The Hindu. 

But Hindu played tit-for-tat and has come up with an ad highlighting TOI as a Page 3 paper. It shows individuals unable to answer general knowledge questions but all answer the entertainment quarter news (Page 3) correctly. On asking the newspaper they read, all reply Times of India, the sound has been beeped but the mouth movements are distinct to catch the name.

Also a print ad in today's Hindu says that the Hindu also has Pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7.....

The new tagline - "Stay ahead of The Times with the Hindu" surely highlights what it wants to say.

Guess this is going to be another case of Rin vs Tide! Let's wait and watch....

Meanwhile, enjoy both the ads here:

Realizations and Thoughts #1

It is very easy to share happiness with others but its tough to share your pain and sufferings because understanding another person's pain is a very difficult task. It cannot be explained by mere words. That's why when you undergo prolonged emotional pain and suffering , you feel you are the loneliest person on this planet and it takes you to a state of emotional detachment from the world (virakti) because you feel there is nobody who can understand you.